“In Julie Taymor's version of 'The Tempest|' the main character is now a woman named Prospera. Going back to the 16th or 17th century| women practicing the magical arts of alchemy were often convicted of witchcraft.”

In Julie Taymor's version of 'The Tempest|' the main character is now a woman named Prospera. Going back to the 16th or 17th century| women practicing the magical arts of alchemy were often convicted of witchcraft. In Taymor's version| Prospera is usurped by her brother and sent off with her four-year daughter on a ship. She ends up on an island; it's a tabula rasa: no society| so the mother figure becomes a father figure to Miranda. This leads to the power struggle and balance between Caliban and Prospera; a struggle not about brawn| but about intellect.